40 years ago, the Kennedy Hearings put the baby food industry under the spotlight

This is an important compilation of excerpts of the testaments given at the Senator Edward Kennedy Hearing. The Hearing helped prompt the eventual adoption of the International Code in 1981. (see also Blog on John Bolton)

Natividad Clavano,MD, giving evidence from the her hospital in Manila, the Philippines. She explains how they reversed their infant mortality rates (IMR) by keeping mothers and babies together and raising breastfeeding rates to 81%. The IMR in her hospital in Manila reduced to 25.5% compared to the overall IMR of the Philippines of 74%.

Oswaldo Ballarin, President of Nestlé Brazil (left) answering Senator Edward Kennedy (right) about Nestlé’s responsibility for the use of breastmilk substitutes in areas of poverty. Ballarin says that Nestlé can’t have that responsibility and that he has been advised by Nestlé that this is an indirect attack on the free world system.